7 replies to this topic

[David M. Kane]

One of my favorite Brabhams is the BT-49, what were the projects that involved BT-47 and BT-48 were they stillborns or what?

[Henri Greuter]

Out of the top of my head, BT47 was from what I remember a fan-car, not unlike the B46-B that was merely a conversion of the BT46 but this one was a clean sheet of paper desing around the ventilator.
BT48 was the 1979 V12 powered car that made Lauda retire and was replaced in the final two races of the year by the BT49.

Henri Greuter

[ensign14]

The BT48 was an F1 car, it was the ground effect Alfa that ran through most of 1979.

BT47 was an advanced fan car - from Henry's Autocourse book Gordon Murray had drawn it before Sweden 78 and was built to the maximum permissible width, and was described as basically a skirted box with cockpit, engine and wheels. The fuel tanks had been ordered and Brabham planned to have it ready for the last 3 races.

[WGD706]

Five days after the Grand Prix of Sweden in '78, the International Commision of Sports (C.S.I.) of the F.I.A. made a trial in Paris, banned the ventilator version of the BT46 with the smallest thinkable majority of 3:2, but Lauda and the Team kept their win and also the points. Gordon Murray had to rebuild the car onto conventional standard, once again. Already he had planned a development version of the fan car, that should have been called BT47, with the size of the propeller being able to be adjusted, but this version never was completed after the ban. In Hockenheim 1978, Murray again tried to use the original nose section of the BT46 for higher speed on the long straights. He installed the water radiators, by the way production parts from the Volkswagen Golf, directly behind the front wheels, but that thing did not succeed. From that point on Murray concentrated on designing a ground effect car of his own, the Brabham BT48, for that Alfa Romeo had to build a real V12. But at the same time the Milanese group forced to establish their own works team in Grand Prix Racing and Brabham and the Italians separated before the end of the 1979 season. With the BT49, again powered by Ford Cosworth and built by Murray only within six weeks, Nelson Piquet (who had entered the Brabham team in a BT46 at Montreal 1978) won the first of his overall three worldchampionships in 1981.
http://www.research-...g.de/bt46-1.htm

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by David M. Kane
One of my favorite Brabhams is the BT-49, what were the projects that involved BT-47 and BT-48 were they stillborns or what?

The BT51's another missing Brabham - looks like a BT49, small-tank ground-effects BMW turbo that was scrapped when the flat-bottom rules came in.

[dolomite]

Here is a sketch of the BT47

[David M. Kane]

Looks like it would have been very quick...

[Racer.Demon]

Originally posted by petefenelon


The BT51's another missing Brabham - looks like a BT49, small-tank ground-effects BMW turbo that was scrapped when the flat-bottom rules came in.

Pictured here.